Man gets prison for stabbing a transient to death in Garden Grove

A 21-year-old man who stabbed another transient to death in Garden Grove was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison.

Daniel Robert Jones-Hoebel pleaded guilty earlier this year to voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon for the 2017 killing of 20-year-old Genaro Diaz.

Officers responding to reports of a domestic dispute and an assault shortly after 9:15 p.m. on June 9, 2017 discovered a critically injured Diaz in a grassy area at an apartment complex in the 12860 block of Haster Street.

According to testimony from officers and detectives during a preliminary hearing, the officers were met by Diaz’s ex-girlfriend. She told them that they were still on good terms, since they shared a 3-year-old daughter, and she would let him sleep in her car since he had nowhere else to go.

Investigators learned that on the night of his death, Diaz had gotten into a fight with Jones-Hoebel, then 19, and 21-year-old Antonio Esquivel, according to court records.

According to the preliminary hearing testimony, Diaz punched his former girlfriend during an argument, leading a friend of hers to call Esquivel, who the friend was dating, and Jones-Hoebel for help.

Jones-Hoebel eventually admitted to stabbing Diaz, who he claimed was punching him at the time, according to the preliminary hearing testimony from Garden Grove police officers. The officers also testified that the ex-girlfriend initially claimed she didn’t know the men who fought Diaz.

Esquivel was taken into custody, but never charged in connection to Diaz’s death.